WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Castlevania Season 4, available now on Netflix.
Castlevania cannot be panned for its lack of violence. The streets of Wallachia run red, as the animators delight in showcasing one dazzling action sequence after another. The Netflix original series features dizzying set pieces through clocktowers, blood-soaked throne rooms and grand Gothic vistas straight out of a 1930s Hammer film. Season 4's animation was a feast for the eyes, shot with kinetic energy and style that truly highlighted the awesome powers of these great characters.
Since this is the final season of Castlevania, it predictably had a whole lot of gruesome and grisly deaths. To list every single death, this list would number in the hundreds, so it'll stick with just the named characters here. Honorable mention to Dragan who was killed and has a name but little else. Sorry, Dragan.
Carmilla
Season 4 of Castlevania went to great lengths to humanize each character's struggles beyond the black and white title of hero and villain. Carmilla of Styria is portrayed as a bloodthirsty tyrant whose mission is human enslavement. And somehow, the show makes her sympathetic by explaining her motivations. Overlooked and mistreated by men her whole life, Carmilla and her sisters strove to seize power and run things better than Dracula. But a vampire's true nature is to always want more. Carmilla's lust for power drove her mad and alienated her sisters.
No longer content with creating a pen of humans as a stable food supply, Carmilla wanted nothing short of the world. With the help of his fellow Forgemaster, Hector, Isaac arrived at Carmilla's castle with his band of Night Creatures in tow. Carmilla swiftly takes out mobs of goons in a bloody ballet. Isaac manages to stab her with an enchanted dagger, greatly weakening her. Out of pure spite, she impales herself with a wooden stake, rolls a bloody tear and then explodes along with her castle.
Ratko
Ratko is a brute-force vampire soldier working alongside Varney to resurrect Dracula. Played by Titus Welliver from Lost, Ratko thinks highly of himself and constantly bickers with Varney about his place in the pecking order. Ratko despises Varney and considers him weak. Varney, on the other hand, tolerates the insults and stokes Ratko's anger because he is a ruthless killing machine; and as revealed later, Varney feeds on death. Ratko plants a tracking stone on Zamfir, which leads the duo to Targoviste's royal court.
Ratko and Varney arrive in Targoviste in search of a mirror to Dracula's castle where they are met by Trevor, Sypha, Zamfir and others. A battle ensues and Ratko kills his fair share of foes before coming face to face with Trevor. Ratko's arrogance is ultimately his undoing as he meets the wrong end of Trevor's Holy Cross blade.
Zamfir
When Sypha and Trevor arrive in Targoviste, they are met by Zamfir, the de facto leader of the decimated city. She is the head guard at the Underground Court. Sypha and Trevor are stunned to find the lack of organization and care that Zamfir displays for her own people. Most are starving, as Zamfir makes them pay tribute to their rotting king and queen in hopes that they will someday re-awaken. Zamfir is insane, by her own admission. As she tells it, she lost her mind the day Dracula attacked Targoviste. Zamfir genuinely believes she has saved her people when in fact she has neglected them.
Zamfir is jolted into an epiphany when Varney and Ratko arrive. She finally recognizes her misguided beliefs and springs into action. Zamfir begins fulfilling her oath by protecting her people. Completing her arc, she steps in front of Ratko's blade and sacrifices her own life to save the lives of the citizens.
Saint Germain
Saint Germain's fall from grace was among the more tragic things to happen in the show. His single-minded ambition was to reunite with his long-lost love in the Infinite Corridor. Prodded by a mysterious alchemist in the Corridor to become more powerful, Saint Germain is coerced to become unwavering in his quest. That meant sacrificing his morals and humanity.
Saint Germain begins murdering people in the name of alchemy and practicing death magic, using the souls of the dead to try and resurrect Dracula and his wife. Once brought back, their souls would inhabit a hermaphrodite body known as a Rebis, giving Saint Germain the power to control the Infinite Corridor. Later, Saint Germain learns that he had been manipulated by Death from the very start. Realizing the error of his ways, Saint Germain helps Trevor stop the resurrection of Dracula and is killed in the process. Moments before his end, he sees the silhouette of his love through a portal. She studies him and walks away, perhaps disgusted by his actions.
Death/Varney
In Castlevania's list of deaths, there is Death himself! Masquerading as an ancient vampire from London called Varney, this elemental spirit feeds on departed souls. Voiced by the legendary Malcolm McDowell, Varney manipulates Saint Germain to create a Rebis using Vlad and Lisa Tepes. The true puppet master and manipulator all along, he explains that he will use Dracula like a pawn to create death on a scale unimagined before; which in turn will make him the most powerful being on Earth. His true intentions laid bare, Varney reveals his skeletal form as the iconic Grim Reaper.
When Trevor and Saint Germain destroy the vessel for Dracula's return, Death demands the souls that our heroes deprived him of having. Trevor takes him on alone, resigned to meet his fateful end. Wielding his enormous scythe, Death is an imposing force of destructive power. With great arrogance and humor, the foul-mouthed Death dispatches Trevor quite easily at first. Somehow, Trevor finds the strength to fight on, flashing his Vampire Killer whip with aplomb. Ultimately, Trevor stabs Death in the skull with an enchanted dagger that lit him up like the sun.
Lenore
Out of all the deaths on this list, Lenore's is the most beautiful. Following Carmilla's demise at the hands of Isaac, Lenore has come to the end of the line as a Queen of Styria. The Diplomat on the Council of Sisters, Lenore was made redundant by Carmilla's warmongering ways. As Carmilla's ambitions grew, Lenore's usefulness to the quartet was outright eliminated. There is little diplomacy needed when the group's goal shifted to mass murder and global domination.
Lenore laments that her sister's lust for power corrupted their original plans caused by an inherently corrosive nature within vampires to never be satisfied. Opting not to be a prisoner to Isaac, Lenore decides to take her own life. She shares a final glass of wine with Hector before walking out into the daylight. She savors the chance to view the sunrise for the first time in her life and is humorously unimpressed. With a smile on her face, she fades away.
Castlevania stars Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha Belnades, James Callis as Alucard, Theo James as Hector, Adetokumboh M'Cormack as Isaac, Jaime Murray as Carmilla, Jessica Brown Findlay as Lenore, Bill Nighy as St. Germain, Jason Isaacs as The Judge and Rila Fukushima as Sumi. The entire series is available now on Netflix.